I feel like I am living in a jungle of books at the moment. I am in university two full days a week and generally for the rest of the week I sit surrounded by text books, files, notepads and post-its trying to keep on top of all of my reading and assignments. Most of these days I spend the day in a onesie because really, who has time to coordinate an outfit everyday when working from home?! It's always an interesting situation when the postman arrives and I look like Minnie Mouse...

Through my university I have access to lots of academic journals and although I am a business student, I have to admit that I do often get side-tracked and take advantage of the health and sports industry journals to do a bit of research (like when I wrote this post). For the past week I've also really enjoyed winding down by reading Women's Health (I recently got a subscription - more on that soon!) and even Men's Health magazine that I bought for my boyfriend - I don't even think he has got his fingers on it yet!

Although it has been tough to squeeze in, I've been determined to keep up a good exercise regime as I'm still working towards my goals to increase my fitness and increase my lean muscle. Most days I feel inactive for about 8 hours a day while I stare at my Mac screen and flick through book after book, so there is no better feeling than getting away from the desk and into the gym. I have managed to do keep doing Body Balance once a week to get a good stretch and relaxation session and I'm quite enjoying the most recent release. I've also managed to continue doing Body Pump twice a week (amen!) and am really seeing results from it at the moment. Body Pump 87 is hard.

The lunge track feels long and it burns, and I think the back track is pretty intense too - it really gets your heart rate up for some fat burning!

I spent lots of time relaxing at the weekend and finally managed to finish season 2 of Homeland. I can't wait to start watching season 3, which I have been recording on Sky+.

I also did a food shop to stock up on some healthy ingredients for meals this week. While I was out, I popped to Holland and Barratt and picked up some pineapple and papaya, which, with a handful of sunflower seeds, is my current favourite breakfast-time yogurt topping. I also grabbed myself a couple of bars of Green and Black's.

Since I've mentioned Green and Black's, I have to let you know that their hot chocolate made with Koko coconut milk is a dream. It tastes like heaven but I feel like it's not too much of a naughty treat as far as hot chocolate goes. Let me know if you give it a try!

I am really pleased with how I have managed to avoid processed foods and sugary snacks this month, with only the odd square or two of dark chocolate to satisfy my sweet tooth! I'm counting down the days until Halloween when I can indulge a little with a Cadbury's Blackcurrant Bite Mini Roll (or two... or three...), which are my favourite halloween treat. I've even managed to save some Candy Corn from my trip to California earlier this year! What are you favourite halloween goodies?